


still in it for the fight

by tielan



Category: Pacific Rim (2013)
Genre: F/M, POV Outsider
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-19
Updated: 2016-07-19
Packaged: 2018-07-25 09:27:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,257
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7527376
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tielan/pseuds/tielan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Anyone with any sense knows that the media storm around Mako Mori and Raleigh Becket is going to be a hurricane; their friends are mostly just hoping that the PPDC's newest pilot pairing don't capsize in the middle of it all.</p>
            </blockquote>





	still in it for the fight

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Port](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Port/gifts).



 One week after the closing of the Breach, the media is waiting with bated breath for their first glimpse of the only two survivors of Operation Pitfall, finally released from medical oversight.

In the last seven days, they’ve hashed and rehashed everything they have about Raleigh Becket and Mako Mori. There’s not much about either of them in the last few years – a few photos of Becket here and there, Mori’s face on a Shatterdome employee’s social media feed every now and then. Becket’s social media feed has been silent for five years, as has his brother’s, and while Mori’s is listed and authorised by the PPDC, and has gained 18 million followers in the last three days, it has never been used.

The lack of recent news means the media outlets drag up everything they can find – mostly retreads of the Becket Boys’ Glory Days, and the news articles about Onibaba and Tokyo’s Daughter.

The PPDC PR department makes sure the information packet about Mako’s service record and work on redoing Gipsy Danger is promptly released, complete with photos – the last thing they need is Mako’s infantilisation in the western media as that cute little Japanese girl clinging to the scarlet shoe in the wreckage of the city.

Information is sent out to carefully-selected media representatives from each of the groups, tailoring the data to the various outlets, and using her contacts to ensure that the outcome is going to be positive.

Someone notes that Mori’s name is always listed in transfer when Stacker Pentecost moves from one Shatterdome to the next. However, before the more tawdry media can latch onto that little tidbit, a single photo appears on the _@PPDCMakoMori_ account: Mako Mori and Raleigh Becket seated on the edge of a oversized hospital bed, their smiles tentative as they look into the phone camera that Becket is holding at arm’s length.

To say the social media arena explodes is, quite possibly, putting it lightly.

 

 

@FOXGoss: _PPDC Hero Raleigh Becket and his co-pilot, Mako Mori, in their first social media appearance to the public._

@bluehairlashes: _愛らしいです！_

@ambisextrous767: _I’d have gotten into Danger with her, too._

@1998JaegerFly: _omg, he’s only gotten hotter!_

@manwhohasitall: _@FOXGoss PPDC Hero Mako Mori and her co-pilot, Raleigh Becket, in their first social media appearance to the public!_

 

 

First impressions are important; Vanessa Washington Gottlieb knows this only too well from her years working in the fashion industry.

As such, she instructs both Mako and Mr. Becket on what to wear for their first press conference – PPDC working uniform – jackets, t-shirt, trousers, boots, dogtags. The impression the Jaeger program needs right now as that they’re soldiers who’ve stopped a war, not the rock stars that the governments of the world said were hyping up their fights to earn advertising dollars.

At first, she’s a little concerned that Mr. Becket might protest the restrictions – he and his brother had a reputation for pushing the limits of authority back in the day – but he only glances at Mako as Mako glances at him, then looks to Vanessa and shrugs. “We can do that.”

They’re appearing as part of the press conference on Pitfall – not the first one, but the first one to introduce them to the world.

To say this is big is an understatement. This is largely because Herc has refused to play to the media, shutting everything down with a flat belligerence that takes a certain amount of skill and experience in handling the media. Hansen may play the ‘dumb Aussie bloke’ card, but he’s not stupid. Hermann and Newt are of great interest to the geeks of the world, but not quite what America’s hypermasculine media narratives desire, nor of interest to Asia, who are far more interested in Tokyo’s Daughter – one of their own.

Of course, segments of the online subculture sneer at Striker Eureka and Gipsy Dangers’ efforts in Pitfall, attributing the closing of the Breach entirely to the crucial mental interaction of ‘The Drs. G’ with the _kaiju_ masters, and declaring that Vanessa’s husband and his colleague-come-frenemy make such a cute couple – surely they’re gay for each other? Or asexual? Or Aspies, yeah, they absolutely _must_ be asexual Aspies – it’ s _sooooo_ important to _represent_...

Reality, Vanessa reflects, tends to be somewhat lost in the midst of the social narratives of race and class.

For instance, Stacker Pentecost’s comment in an interview back in the old days of the Mark II program about how the Drift certainly didn’t need to be sexual since he was perfectly capable of Drifting with a lesbian and was asexual himself, gets only marginal traction among such people. But, as she knows only too well herself, there’s nothing you can do to change the stories people create to justify their prejudice, and there never has been.

The best you can do is get in ahead of the stories and try to direct it your way – rather like trying to sail a skiff in a gale.

In the end, the media storm around Mako Mori and Raleigh Becket is going to be a hurricane, and Vanessa is going to do everything in her power to make sure they don’t capsize in the middle of it all.

 

 

Alison Choi watches the PPDC introduction of Mako Mori and Raleigh Becket on the television while her son drives his toy trucks through a LEGO city, trying to replicate the old ‘ _Everything is Awesome_ ’ song with a typical two-year old’s gift for the ability to carry a tune, which is ‘only occasionally’ and quite frequently ‘not at all’.

Halfway through, she takes a call from her husband, still in Hong Kong, although hopefully due to be deployed home on some well-deserved leave. “Hey, I’m watching it now.”

“I had to wipe tears away a couple of times – our kids, all growed up.”

She has to snort at Tendo’s dramatisation, although he’s not wrong, either.

“Mako’s doing pretty well for someone who hasn’t been in the limelight much through the years.”

“Yeah, Vanessa took her through the basics and you know she learns fast.”

The announcements done, there are questions – from carefully selected journalists, of course. As Alison is very aware, Vanessa Gottlieb does not leave things to chance. Which, when the inevitable question is asked, makes her wonder if Vanessa deliberately planted the query – just after the discussion of how Raleigh feels about driving a Jaeger with someone who isn’t his brother. (“ _It’s a different Drift, but no less solid. Without Mako, Gipsy would have gone nowhere at all._ ”)

“So, you’re co-pilots,” says Tina Everart of the San Diego Dailies. “Are you together as well?”

There’s a moment when they stare at her as though they haven’t understood the question. Then, Mako says, simply. “No.”

“We only met ten days ago,” Raleigh says with a faint smile.

Alison considers that smile before asking her husband, “So does he mean they only met ten days ago, it’s too early to say? Or does he mean they only met ten days ago, give her time to fall in love with him?”

“Do you have money riding on this?”

“I’m hurt that you’d think such a thing. _Hurt_.” Alison listens to the silence on the other end of the phone, which is Tendo scowling to himself, possibly shoving a donut into his mouth while he considers his answer. They’ve both of them run book in various Shatterdomes – one memorable time, they ran the book together.

“What do you think? Just off the ramp and into the sea, what’s your thoughts?”

“Hang on a minute.” Alison takes the triangular wooden brick her son is tapping on her thigh, point-first, in a very painful but probably unintentional way. “Um. Well, not knowing Raleigh that well, I can’t really say. But Mako trusts him – he’s standing way closer than she lets most people, and—does he usually lean that way around women?”

“You’re overthinking this.”

“I’d say he’s a goner. Sunk and holed. But I think she’s still making up her mind – which is kind of odd for Mako; she usually leaps straight in. How am I doing?”

“Ten out of ten. Boy’s got it bad – he was always one to throw himself into everything wholehearted.”

“Yancy was the one who slowed them down, made them think.” Alison nods as she studies the body language of the two pilots. “So what happened with Mako?”

“Pentecost didn’t initially have her on the matching list for Gipsy.”

“So she held back.” Alison sees the problem immediately. And sympathises, because, yeah, Alison knows what it is to hold back from trusting a guy – Tendo was a charmer, but he was also a charming philanderer so far as the women of the Shatterdome were concerned. She took her time to come around, too. “Tough luck, Mr. Becket. You’re going to have to work for this one.”

 

 

Dr. Caitlin Lightcap, inventor of the PONS technology, and the woman who made the discovery about the Drift, wanders out of her bedroom to mayhem – the television turned up way too loud, her three year old son battering on an ancient tin can, her husband absently jiggling Eva on his lap while he watches the screen.

“What is going— Oh! Mako and Mr. Becket!”

She sits down and Eva promptly tries to crawl over Sergio’s arm to get to mommy. “Hey, honey...” She takes the baby and the kiss Sergio dots on her nose. “How are they doing?”

“So far, no assholes.” He reaches over and pokes their son in the back. “Hey, Josh, come sit with daddy and stop making such a racket.” He pulls Josh into his lap and jiggles him on his knee the way Josh likes. “There was another question about whether they were together, but Mako shut it down faster than the speed of light.”

“Well, she can’t have known him above a couple of weeks.” Caitlin frowns as someone asks about the Drift connection. “Why are they asking about that? Surely after this many years fighting _kaiju_ they know the answer?”

“Two infinite things in the universe.”

She rolls her eyes at the old saw, true though it might be. “Also, who schedules these things? This is, what? The third or fourth one in the last two days?”

“Four. And that would be the PPDC PR.”

“I’d have thought Vanessa would know better.”

“She might, but that’s no guarantee that whoever’s making this schedule will.”

Cait’s eyes narrow at the screen as she thinks about who she can call to harangue about this – or, more correctly, get Sergio to harangue about this. Because an angry woman is a harpy, but an angry man has a grievance to air, and sexism still sucks.

“Mommy?”

“Yes, Joshi?”

“You angry?”

She quickly smooths over her expression, even as Sergio grins. “No, mommy’s just thinking.”

“So,” Sergio comments. “Who am I going to be calling to harass this morning?”

They haven’t Drifted in nearly a decade, but the connection between them has never really wavered or died. There are theories on it, of course – the Drift Psychs have come up with all kinds of reason for why and how the Drift persists between some pilot pairs while others can draw apart and cease to become Drift-compatible over time.

“I’m still working out who needs the earbashing for this.” She’s not sure who’s head of PR these days, but she could go all the way to the top and the Secretary General. They will always have time for the woman who discovered the Drift – or, at least, for her husband, the pilot of the first successful Jaeger.

On the screen, the press conference ends, and the two pilots turn in unison to leave the stage. Mr. Becket’s hand comes up to cup Mako’s elbow, and she doesn’t feel the need to turn around to look at him, as though she knows exactly where he is and why he’s touched her.

Cait remembers how that felt – to suddenly know that someone was there for her and always would be. How exhilarating and freeing it was – and how terrifying and overwhelming.

Her own memories of those first few weeks after the first Drift with Sergio are also stained with guilt. She was still technically with Jasper at the time, while feeling in tune with Sergio, all the time, every day, trying not to romanticise the connection and yet being painfully aware of the attraction between them, growing into more. She’s not entirely sure she clearly remembers those weeks of feeling torn between the two men, between what she wanted for herself and what she felt she owed to Jasper. And knowing that Jasper felt the distance between them, and resented it, even as he exulted in the achievement of everything they’d hoped for in the Jaeger program.

A hand closes around her wrist, grounding her. “Hey.” Sergio meets her gaze. “It’s okay. It turned out okay, remember?”

He’s her anchor, her solid ground, the sanity she didn’t know she wanted until she found it.

Caitlin glances at the screen, looking at the slender, strong figure, bowed down by grief and responsibility and the sudden thrust into the limelight of a world that wants to see a heroine, a hero, and a great romance.

“Becket will look after her,” Sergio lets Josh climb off and moves over to hold both her and Eva. “He’ll manage it.”

“How do you know?”

Her husband snorts, shaking them with a quick huff of laughter. “Because I have eyes in my head and I can see when a guy has it bad – unlike some people.”

Caitlin rolls her eyes. “That was once. And I was busy at the time!”

“Well, you’re not now,” Sergio kisses her cheek. “And this makes it twice.”

 

 

There are things a man doesn’t like to have to say. But sometimes the hard yakka needs to be done, and Herc considers this one of the hardest.

 _None of your beeswax, Dad,_ says Chuck in his head. Or maybe it’s, _Yeah, get the fucker off her!_

Even after five years Drifting, sometimes Herc’s not sure he ever really understands his son. Or understood. Is it past tense when Chuck’s still rattling around in his head? Herc doesn’t know and isn’t willing to say one way or the other. Frankly, it was easier back when it was a job that needed to be done – get in the Jaeger, Drift with his co-pilot, fight the _kaiju_ , and win.

Now? Now it’s all politics, of the kind that he never much liked.

Shoulda been Stacker doing this; he was better at smoothing things over. Herc hasn’t the patience or the pretty words. But Stacker’s gone, like Chuck, like the _kaiju_ , and Herc still isn’t sure it was a fair exchange.

Well, that’s neither here nor there. Not when he’s looking at the way Becket is looking at Mako and caught between thinking, _Mate, get a room,_ and _It’s a good idea to ask her first._

Maybe being in two frames of mind about Becket and Mako runs in the family?

In the end, whatever his thoughts on the situation, Herc has a responsibility – to Miss Mori, to Stacker – hell, to Becket, who’s getting himself in deep in ways that reminds Herc uncomfortably of his own courtship of his long-dead wife.

And it needs to be said.

So he sidles up to Becket while Mako is off being groomed for the upcoming interview and mumbles, “A word, eh, Becket?”

Becket’s expression is affable, until he gets a look at Herc’s face, then he closes up. The kid knows what he’s doing; he’s just trying to extend it as long as he can. Thing is, the elastic only stretches so far, and when it snaps, it’s gonna sting his fingers like a bluebottle on the beach.

“Herc.”

“Becket.” Herc lets out a breath. “Drifting isn’t destiny, you know.”

“I Drifted with my brother,” says Becket sharply. “I know.”

“Are you sure you know what you’re doing with Mako?”

“Last I checked, I was being her co-pilot.” The answer is cool and a little bit belligerent. “And she’s a woman grown and more than capable of making her own decisions.”

It’s the same tone Becket gave Chuck when Chuck was being an ass the day he met Becket. Which, yeah, Herc is being an ass, but the ghost of Stacker Pentecost is standing at his shoulder, and this isn’t something he can just let through to the keeper.

“Ordinarily, yeah. I’d keep my nose out of it. But she’s been through a lot in the last month – not least of which is losing Stacker and getting to pilot Gipsy, close the Breach and become a celebrity. Even the most rational and level-headed of people is going to reach for whatever’s nearest to hold onto.”

“And I’m not suitable for Mako to keep?”

Oh, to be in his twenties again and sensitive to anything that suggests he’s not good enough for the girl he’s crazy over! Herc doesn’t miss that time of life one bit. Well, not the emotional anguish, anyway. “I’m saying you need to be careful – with Mako and with yourself.”

Becket manages a shrug, although it’s a little jerky. “It’s too late for me,” he says, and the tone is light, but his expression disguises the heavy truth. “You’d be better off having this conversation with Mako. There might still be time to haul her away from the edge.”

“Haul me away from what edge?”

Herc winces. Okay, so that’s awkward. He turns to look at the open, curious face of Miss Mori, looking from Becket to him, and back to Becket. “Mako. We’re just...discussing a few things.”

Mako’s gaze is held by Becket, who’s just looking at her, his expression caught somewhere between mulish and uncertain. And her expression turns from inquisitive, to surprised, to frowning, as though he’d told her exactly what’s just transpired. Maybe he did. “This is not their concern.” She turns to Herc, the frown lightening just a little. “Herc- _san—_ ”

“We’re worried about you, that’s all, Mako.”

“We?” She blinks at him. “Worried that Raleigh cannot be trusted?”

“No.” Herc looks at Becket, seeking a way out. This time, the smile is distinctly malicious. No help coming from that quarter. “You’ve been through a lot, and...this is going to be a difficult time.”

Mako reaches one hand out to Raleigh, closing her fingers over his. “Thank you for your concern, Herc- _san_.”

The _but it is not necessary_ comes through, loud and clear, even as one of the producers of the show bustles up, and announces that they’re ready to go.

Herc takes the lead, because he’s the oldest and the Marshal, and because he figures he should let Miss Mori glare at his back for a little while. Then he takes a deep breath and steps out into the lights.

It takes him a minute to realise that Mako and Becket aren’t immediately following him, although they come out shortly after.

 

 

@PPDCRaleighBecket : _So, we are?_

@PPDCMakoMori : _@PPDCRaleighBecket Yes, we are._

 

 

One month after the closing of the Breach and five seconds after a couple of 'explosive' status updates are posted, Raleigh Becket and Mako Mori appear on Japanese TV holding hands. They are with Hercules Hansen, Marshal of the PPDC, but his presence goes largely unnoticed in the subsequent furore, and his expression through most of the interview is politely described as ‘poleaxed’.

Mako even goes so far as to allow Raleigh to rest their clasped hands on his thigh.

 

**Author's Note:**

> I apologise for the Japanese tweet. Hopefully it translates as "Adorable!"
> 
> @manwhohasitall is a real twitter feed (and worth following IMO), the others are ones I made up, so please don't go bothering the people at those feeds!
> 
> Title is from _Click Five_ 's "Catch Your Wave" which I feel is a very Mako/Raleigh song.


End file.
